The latest scandals are not what
Buddhist-majority Thailand's more than 60 million devotees
want to think about when they take off their shoes, enter a
temple, humbly kneel and touch their foreheads to the ground
in front of a statue of the Buddha.

Thailand's 200,000
monks traditionally must obey the Vinaya which lists 227
monastic rules prescribed by the Buddha more than 2,500
years ago.

These rules tell monks how to interact with
people and forbid killing, stealing, sex, major financial
transactions, intoxication, politics and other activities,
and describe the correct use of food, utensils, robes and
temple property.

Inappropriate behavior, however, appears
to be spreading among Thailand's Buddhist monks who often
enjoy living in ornate, modern, multi-million-dollar temple
complexes built from donations.

To smooth the cash flow,
many temples include brightly-lit banking ATM machines
installed on temple property for devotees to use, next to
statues and prayer halls.

Despite the seemingly endless
news about monks occasionally committing crimes, Thais
usually consider the cases to be abuses by individuals.

A recent
YouTube video showing monks on a plush private jet
purportedly taking off from Thailand to France, however,
resulted in a criminal case by the Department of Special
Investigation (DSI), Thailand's version of the U.S. Federal
Bureau of Investigation.

The video shows a few robed monks
in comfy jet seats next to their leader -- a Buddhist abbot
popularly known as Luang Pu Nen Kham, whose real name is
Wirapol Sukphol.

Mr. Wirapol is wearing yellow sunglasses
while sitting next to what appears to be a designer
bag.

That blatant display of jet-set wealth proved too
much for many Thais.

Thailand's media, officials and
public immediately voiced outrage about the video, lamenting
how far the idealistic, atheist teachings of the Buddha have
degenerated in this Southeast Asian nation, while the
scandal rapidly escalated.

The DSI spent Monday (July 15)
scrutinizing allegations that Mr. Wirapol had sex with a
14-year-old girl a decade ago, and want to conduct DNA
tests.

An animated
satirical video also appeared, mocking Mr. Wirapol and
included imagined scenes of a robed monk committing various
sins, such as enjoying Bangkok's infamous ping-pong sex
show.

Surprisingly, at least one of Thailand's tightly
government-controlled television stations broadcast the
satirical video without censoring the animated bikini-clad
dancer's erotic behavior.

"I have been wondering for three
years why the monk has such large amounts of money and
assets," said Bangkok Aviation Center's founder and CEO,
Piya Tregalnon.

He posted details on his Facebook page
about Mr. Wirapol renting the center's private planes to
travel between Bangkok and Ubon Ratchathani which is near
his monastery in eastern Thailand.

"I think his wealth is
suspicious," Mr. Piya said, confirming the Facebook posts,
according to the Bangkok Post.

The monk allegedly paid the
equivalent of $10,000 for each rented plane, said Mr. Piya
who was also an air force wing commander.

The DSI
meanwhile reportedly said a former aide to the monk told
them that Mr. Wirapol cavorted with other girls, drank
alcohol, and took illegal drugs.

The partying occurred
inside a garage at the former aide's car repair shop in Ubon
Ratchathani, where the monk brought his luxury vehicles to
be fixed, the DSI's Security Crime Bureau chief, Police Lt.
Col. Pong-in Intarakhao, said.

During the current
investigation, Crime Suppression Division officers attempted
to search the monk's monastery for more evidence.

The
government's Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO) recently
announced that the monk and his associates were allegedly
linked to bank accounts totaling millions of dollars.

"I
want to warn Luang Pu Nen Kham's network, and Luang Pu
himself, not to move assets shown in the bank accounts
because doing so will immediately fall into the category of
money laundering," said AMLO Deputy Chief Suwanee
Sawaengphol.

"If the money has been used to buy cars or an
airplane, such assets will be illegal too, according to
money laundering law, and they will be confiscated," she
said.

"Even though Luang Pu can claim that the money has
been voluntarily donated by members of the public, if the
money was obtained by exploitation of people's faith through
fraud and scams, they are also illegal under the money
laundering law," said Ms. Suwanee who is also a police
captain.

The monk's defenders said photos of him with
women were fake, and any expensive items he may have used
had been donated to him, not illegally purchased.

"We will
find evidence to counter all the groundless accusations," a
supporter, Sukhum Wongprasit, told parliament.

Mr.
Wirapol, born in 1979, was ordained as a novice when he was
15 years old.

His base in eastern Thailand's Sisaket is
registered as a monastery instead of as a temple, which may
allow legal loopholes in its financial status, an official
said.

The flying monk reportedly departed France and is
currently in California where he allegedly owns a
house.

Thailand's media and public meanwhile is expressing
disapproval about an unrelated scandal involving another
Buddhist monk.

A
recently uploaded YouTube video shows Tee Perd Yanthep
coaxing two nervously smiling women to repeat gibberish,
which the monk says is a "language of the deity that stays
with people in every incarnation".

The two women struggle
to mumble his mumbo-jumbo, while the monk instructs them at
a temple.

Police are also investigating other allegations
of monks gone bad.

Near Krabi, a southern beach town,
police said on June 28 they found the strangled corpse of a
senior monk whose hands and feet were bound.

His iPad and
mobile phone had not been stolen, perhaps because of his
involvement in a profitable spiritual amulet business,
police told reporters.

In Bangkok, an actor accused of
murdering the owner of an upscale bar in January did what
many alleged criminals do -- he suddenly became a temporary
monk before prosecutors filed their case against him in
mid-June.

Some criminals permanently dodge justice by
hiding in temples as monks under a pseudonym.

If
discovered, they often join another temple, using a
different name.

Also in June, villagers in northeast
Thailand alleged that a senior monk inappropriately touched
a 13-year-old novice.

Not far away, in a separate case,
police arrested a 41-year-old Buddhist abbot for allegedly
consuming illegal methamphetamines and possessing
pornography in his
temple.

*************

Richard S. Ehrlich is a Bangkok-based
journalist from San Francisco, California, reporting news
from Asia since 1978, and recipient of Columbia University's
Foreign Correspondent's Award. He is a co-author of three
non-fiction books about Thailand, including "Hello My Big
Big Honey!" Love Letters to Bangkok Bar Girls and Their
Revealing Interviews; 60 Stories of Royal
Lineage; and Chronicle of Thailand: Headline News
Since 1946. Mr. Ehrlich also contributed to the final
chapter, Ceremonies and Regalia, in a new book titled
King Bhumibol Adulyadej, A Life's Work: Thailand's
Monarchy in Perspective.

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